Four blocks a semester. Eight blocks a year. Four years total. Thirty-two blocks at CC.

Students in the two-block Science Journalism: Reporting & Writing about the Natural Sciences, studied the Hayman Fire burn scar, northwest of Pikes Peak, visible in the background. The flexibility of the Block Plan allows for field study and study abroad, including day-long, week-long, and block-long trips, domestically and internationally.

Adopted in 1970, Colorado College’s “Block Plan” is a uniquely intensive academic schedule that allows students to plunge into a different subject every three and a half weeks rather than balancing several throughout a semester. Students take one course at a time and professors teach one, with each block covering the same amount of material as a semester system.

The result? You can study the film industry on location in Hollywood, find Jupiter during evening labs in Barnes observatory, or traverse the natural wonders of the Southwest as a field archaeologist. Classes are small, hands-on, and highly focused.

If you love your class, you’re free to obsess over it. Not your thing? It’s over in three and a half weeks and by block break, you’ll have learned a semester’s worth of course material. It’s a win-win.

The Block Basics

A block lasts for three and a half weeks, beginning on a Monday and ending on the following fourth Wednesday.

One block is equal to one class on the semester plan.

Four blocks per semester; eight blocks per year, plus optional Half Block in the winter and Summer Session during the summer.

Class typically meets 9 a.m. - 12 p.m., Monday through Friday, with applicable labs in the afternoon, but professors are free to schedule classes in the format they feel is most suited to the subject matter.

On Sunday, the day after our last flight, I went on a hike to Castle Rock with a couple other ROSETTA folk. Being the only day in the week that we are not on the schedule to fly, of course, the skies were clear and visibility as good as can be. The wind, however, was […]

The last survey flight was completed on December 3rd. This flight concentrated on an area in the southern part of the Ross Ice Shelf. Travelling anywhere on the shelf requires some work. Although the IcePod remains attached to the lever arm on the plane until surveying ends for the season, the gravimeters are removed from the […]